Posts Tagged ‘sew’

Here is a quick and easy tutorial on how to turn your pendant lighting into party lighting!

We have a big St. Pat’s Day party coming up and I’ve taken charge of the decorating. These fun cellophane ruffles fit over your pendant lighting and can be reused again next year!

For this you will need some ribbon, a piece of plain paper, and a roll of cellophane wrapping paper. You can buy this clear paper in fun colors at the dollar store (thats where I got mine in gold and green). It is, I think, the same kind of stuff you would use to wrap a gift basket. It comes on a roll the same size as wrapping paper.

Cut a piece that fits your pendant light leaving some extra space to hang past the bottom rim of the light, and add a few inches to the top so that it can be folded over and create a clean edge at the top. I would say an extra 3 or 4 inches.

Also cut a piece of plain white paper that is the circumfrance as the top of the pendant light plus an inch or so to overlap. I doubled this paper up for strength.

At the sewing machine, fold over the top of your green cellophane lengthwise. Put this piece, fold side down, on top of your white paper strip. Start sewing down the lenght of the white paper strip stopping every few stitches with the needle down in the paper and the foot up to fold the green cellophane back on itself. This will create lots of little pleats. My pleats were each about a half inch in width. Space them out so that your green cellophane ends at the end of the white paper.

It will look like this from behind when you remove it from the machine. Next you’ll need to cut a piece of your accent color, in this case gold, that will hang out below the green and fluff up above it. This time at the machine the green cellophane will be face down and you will lay the accent cellophane over the top of it. Sew it the same way stopping every few stitches to fold it back on itself and finishing it off at the end of the white paper.

To apply it to your pendant light, put a roll of tape on one end and over lap that end over the other while it is on your pendant. I added a white ribbon to cover up the stitch and thats it!

They look so pretty all lit up and cast a lovely green glow. The best part is they are sturdy enough for a second use!

Keep looking back for more ideas for your St.Pat’s day party including menu ideas, drink ideas, and a few more decorations!

My brother Aaron gave me a gift certificate to the craft store for Christmas and I spent it on fabric and patterns. I really want to take the time to learn all about following a pattern and making clothes.

This skirt is one of my first goes and while I do like it…there are a few lessons from it!

My zippers need some help.

My hem is too obvious. There has to be a better way!

The leather bit was not a part of the pattern and it was a bit ambitious for me to make things up before I had the hang of things. This is actually the second try on that. The first leather band was a bit tight so I managed to make a second with the scraps. Leather…as I should have guessed…is also not all that easy to sew with. This one fits better, and I am happy with the buttons but tearing the band off and replacing it with a slightly larger one somewhat messed up my pleats in the front. They’re not unbearable but they’re not as sharp and neat as I would like.

All and all, I have to say for a first try it’s not bad. Its wearable and I do like the look of it. There is another skirt I’ll post soon and hopefully I can really get into making clothes! I think my next project will be an off white or cream button down to go with this 🙂

My mom and I both love love love to cook and spend an awful lot of time watching food network when we’re together. Since I’ve been away in Australia cooking makes me feel close to her and I’ve been very much into digging out new recipes and concocting some of my own to pass along to her.

Mom’s handmade Christmas gift this year was a recipe book! This fabric I absolutely loved and had intended to use as curtains in my kitchen but that idea was VETOED. Instead I used it to make this gift for mom.

I used batting and binding board for the covers and stitched button holes to accommodate the green binder clips I found in the craft booking section of the craft store. The pages are recipe book fill pages from craft stores and will take regular recipe cards.

I made my own recipe cards with photographs I took of the fabric and manipulated in Adobe Illustrator. The pocket in the front of the book will hold the blanks for her.

I stitched a felt tea pot to the front of the book and monogrammed it. I also hand stitched all the way around the edge of the book which not only looked nicer but also made it easier to work around the thick binding board I used.

Before Christmas day I wrote down all of my favorite new food adventures from the past year and filled about the first 10 cards for her. It’ll be a work in progress!

This gift was for my dad who is an avid sailor. He just purchased a new boat that is in storage until spring and the real gift will be curtains for his new boat but until I can get at it to take measurements I wanted to give him something to open on Christmas day.

Before I wrapped it I loosely stitched a ribbon at the top of the sails that said I O U SAILBOAT CURTAINS that can easily pull right off.

I used a bunch of fat quarter scraps to pull it all together and didn’t really bother with a pattern (I probably should have drawn something up). Sometimes I wing things I shouldnt! But all in all its a nice little pillow he can put on his boat this summer! The real challenge will be the boat curtains 🙂

Here is another post-Christmas-post! For my brother’s girlfriends I made purses. These lovely little bags were created with a free pattern from Made by Rae. This bag, called the butter cup bag, has a little pocket inside and a magnetic closure. It was pretty easy to make and I really love the result!

This lovely pink and grey purse was for Ashley. My brother told me she loves pink and I found out later the grey matches an outfit she has 🙂

Jen has mentioned a few times how much she loves black and white accented with red! The inside has a very subtle red stripe and I really loved the hounds tooth for a winter purse.

The butter cup pattern was really easy and It taught me how to install those great little magnetic snaps as well as creating nice neat pleats. I recommend you download and give it a try! It only takes a quarter lining and a quarter fabric.

I’ve been a barista for about 8 years and It is by far the best work Ive ever been involved with. Here are a few of my favorite coffee inspired finds on Etsy!

Coffee Cozy by lisejamison

The cafe I worked for here in Rochester, The Leaf and Bean Coffee Co., used to make and sell coffee cozies in beautiful fabrics and colors. People love these customized coffee holders and they’re a greener choice to using the paper ones provided in cafes (if you can remember to bring it with you!) I like that this Etsy Seller, LiseJamison, has taken it an extra step further by recycling coffee bags into cozies!

Espresso Coffee Cups by LaMiaBottega

When I moved to Australia…I was schooled on everything I knew about coffee! American’s aren’t by any means WRONG in the way we do coffee, but Australia certainly has very different practices. One of which is the way they drink coffee. For Americans it’s all on the go and a good 95% or more of drinks are made in paper cups. Australian coffee drinkers make their coffee an event and put a lot of weight on the presentation of their drinks. Drinks are also significantly smaller! The average american small coffee is 12 oz while the largest coffee I made in australia was 8oz. I am all too happy to be drinking American coffee again, but I really loved the time I spent working on drink presentation and serving up coffee in beautiful porceline. Thats why I love these beautiful hand painted espresso cups by LaMiaBottega. What I reaaaally wish is that the tea pot in her icon was for sale!

Gold Mustache Mug Set by Kimay

Now that I am back on American soil I can enjoy a full cup of brewed coffee. The closest Aussies get to brewed coffee is espresso diluted in water. I MUCH prefer a big cup of joe you can savor on a chilly winter day. Espresso drinks are small and don’t last long. These great mugs by Kimay are perfectly humorous!

Moka Express tea towel by mengseldesign

These tea towels by mengseldesign feature great graphic illustrations of Moka stove top espresso makers. I’ve always thought they were such a cool, vintage little contraption!

Emery Pincushion Cup of Cafe latte by dottyral

Lastly, this delicious little pin cushion by dottyral. Since I’ve become so enthralled with sewing this little latte pin cushion is perfect for me 🙂 I love the floral foam pattern on the top!

As promised! A photo of the completed strawberry short-cake! A few weeks ago I posted a HOW-TO for this adorable felt play food which you can find here. You can find a tutorial on the strawberries here. I try to make lots of How-To posts so check out that whole section of the blog if you’re feeling crafty.

It took me a while to get this posted because I’ve been working so hard on all my christmas goodies. This tea party for my nieces (more of which can be seen here) has been my big project since October and I’ve poured a lot of time and love into. I absolutely cannot wait until Christmas to see the reveal.

I spent yesterday evening constructing a table for their party which is a really simple and fun project I will post more about soon. It is made of cardboard but is very very structurally sound. I’ve made cardboard furniture before and absolutely love the concept of recycled furniture that can be so creative and unique visually. I’ll be sure to post more about that soon.

I took all of these photos before the table was completed but I really love how all of the elements of their tea party together are such beautiful bright colors. It’s just so pretty to look at. I can’t help but leave it all assembled until Christmas.

Since these photos I have painted a purple lace doily on the table with their initials as well as painted the legs of the table pale yellow with faint wood grain. The scallops of the table has purple trim now too. I didn’t make them chairs for their table because, as you can see in earlier posts about the project, I had made them special embroidered and fringed pillows to sit on.

The latest addition to the table are these adorable felt fruits from a pattern by UmeCraft on Etsy. The apple velcros together and slices apart. The Orange comes apart into 6 slices, and the banana peels!

Their dessert selection is not limited to Strawberry Shortcake! These girls can also pick from four different cupcakes! This one here is their lemon merengue with orange peel and a lemon wedge. I made special cupcake wrappers with their names on them in three bright fun colors too. In my final tea party post I will show more in detail on the cupcakes.

If you’d like to see more photos of what I’ve been up to with this project, please visit the tea party post to see more about the table ware, and my flickr site to see food more in detail.

I can promise you two more posts on this subject…if you don’t mind! One on cardboard furniture with this table as the feature, and one on the final project after christmas. It’ll be a part of my slew of holiday gift ideas for 2010!

I was trolling around flickr today looking for pretty things to share with you since my own pretty things are in hiding for christmas. There are some great flickr craft groups and it didn’t take long to find a few things I liked!

Los Trillizos Westie by agustina

My mom is a westie owner and so I was particularly partial to these adorable little westie pins by augustina. Check out more of her hand made goodies on her flickr page by clicking the photo.

Mini Moo Box Camera by Hine

I love this little felt camera by Hine. She’s constructed it out of a Mini Moo cards box! I may have to order some mini moos just to make this. By clicking her photo you can see all of the other great felt constructions she’s been working on. She has some really creative phone cases and camera cases!

Tomboy Bifold Wallet by BCharmer

I love love LOVE this wallet by BCharmer. I have to agree with her that boy wallets hold your goodies much better than ours and I love that shes patterned something so cute and girly for us. Her selection of fabrics is fantastic! Check out more of her hand made goodies by clicking on her photo.

Here is another one of my promised posts that I am checking off of my list of things to do.

Last week I had my first craft show and tried to make lots to save money. One of the things I cut cost on were paper bags. The cheapest I found were 13 bags for $6 but I found that the office supply store sold a roll of shipping paper for $5 and with this sewing technique and the size bag I wanted, I was able to get 60+ out of it! Quite a deal if you have the time!

Firstly…I apologize for the terrible photos. There isn’t much good lighting once the sun goes down in this house and I was working frantically to get things done for the craft show.

Fold the paper back on its self at about the size you want your finished bag width. Add an inch or so for seam allowance and cut it off.

I then folded that piece in half and cut it to get the right height for my bag, but then that depends on what size bag you’re going for.

Here are the two bags I can get out of one strip of paper. You are then going to sew down along the cut edge of the bag. I use a long and wide zig zag stitch to make it decorative. I also used bright threads, and mixed up my bobbin and thread colors.

Once that stitch is sewn, use a bone folder to center the seam over the back of the bag, press the edges of the bag and flatten the seam up the back.

The seam should run up the back like this. I then used my paper-cutter to add a scalloped edge to the top and bottom of the bag. You don’t need to but it looked nice!

Fold up the bottom edge of the bag and press it flat with the bone folder. Zig zag stitch it down. I again used bright colors and a different bobbin color to show up on the front of the bag.

All done! It’s the same concept as an envelope really and works best for flatter items. I was selling my custom coloring books so a little bright tissue paper, a book, and this cute bag customized with my hand carved stamp worked out great.